1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a media converter, and particularly relates to a media converter capable of interchangeable data conversion between a bidirectional interface and a unidirectional interface, and capable of interchangeable data conversion between consumer equipment and commercial equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
In the related art, interfaces used for images and audio at broadcasting stations are typically of serial communication regardless of standard broadcasting or high image-quality broadcasting. This serial communication is only unidirectional, not bidirectional as with telephone lines. As a result, at least two communication lines are necessary when data for images and audio is exchanged between commercial equipments. Further, HD-SDI (High-Definition Serial Digital Interfaces) is used as communication lines for commercial equipment within a broadcasting station in case of high image-quality broadcasts, which is so-called high-vision broadcasts. This interface is high-speed, for example approximately 1.5 GHz, so electrical power required in communication is high, and communication lines are quite expensive. In addition to this, commercial equipment for use in broadcast stations is incomparably larger than domestic equipment.
On the other hand, there are many kinds of image and audio interfaces used in typical domestic equipment, such as optical cables, component cables, and composite cables etc. Among them, bidirectional interfaces such as digital interfaces (Brand name; i.Link) and USBs etc. conforming to the IEEE1394 standard are recently used for connecting with personal computers built-in television tuners. Further, bidirectional interfaces such as LAN cables and GigaEther etc. are widely used also in internet environments becoming broadly accustomed, including in case of conventional telephone lines. As described above, while between commercial equipment and domestic equipment, differences exist in the levels of images and audio handled respectively, from the point of view of interfaces, an essential difference is that one is bidirectional and the other is unidirectional communication. This is mainly caused by communication speeds within interfaces due to differences in level of handled image quality.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei. 9-93552 (page 5, FIG. 1).